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Thursday, 21 April 2016

Let's make... decorative paper cones.

I LOVE paper.

Vintage paper mostly, but also new handmade paper, tatty old packing paper, transparent tracing paper, graph paper...the list is endless and it's so easy to work with. I love the feel of it, the smell of it and even the sound of it when it rustles.

Here's a nice little exercise to get used to working with this [in my opinion] most wondrous of materials and it's pretty simple so suitable for a child's activity.

Cones made using vintage pages with ribbon loops pushed up through the tip

Most people know how to make a paper cone, but there are a few variations. I cut a piece of paper into a semi circle shape [some people make them out of squares], bend it around to form a cone and glue or staple to fix in place. The first cone I remember making was for the body of a Christmas angel [with beauteous doily wings] at infants school . The second was a few years later when I made Turkish Delight[so exotic!] as Christmas presents for the family - a magazine recipe showed a portion wrapped up in cling film and placed into a cone made from festive wrapping paper.

You can basically make a cone out of any paper and use it as a receptacle or as a decoration, as I have done here...

Double cone made with vintage page and stained tracing paper - just slot one inside the other!

Pages from an old book look lovely and tracing paper works well, especially if it's stained.
I do this by soaking for a few minutes in warm black coffee and letting it dry flat, you can see how this gives it a nice sepia vintage hue.

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Tracing paper cone with twine loop and twig filling

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Tracing paper cone with twine loop and butterfly motif glued inside

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You can make new paper look vintage [see image below], just wet it, screw up into a ball and let it dry, then carefully flatten out for that fragile look...

Double cone with twine loop - flower head

Vintage paper double cone with twine loop and twig filling

Oh and by the way, cones just happen to make great Christmas tree decorations! See in the images below how tracing paper works perfectly because you can see the gold ribbon shimmering though it. In the second image the rim of the cones have been edged with a glitter glue.

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Tracing paper cone [unstained] with gold ribbon loop.
If you tie a bow in the ribbon it lodges in the cone like the stamen of a flower

Tracing paper cones with gold ribbon loops and glitter glued edges

An even simpler exercise is to go into the garden, pick a few of the tiniest, prettiest flowers and make some fairy bouquets! This is a lovely project for children to do and who wouldn't want to wake up in the morning to find one of these miniature treasures on their bedside side table?

About Me

I manage two blogs - as an Assistant Librarian working in a Museum Library I post about our special collections as "Squirrel Library". I am also an artist, crafter and poet, promoting my work as "Mayfifth1935 Designs". Click 'view my complete profile' for blog links.